S&P said the government brought “selective, punitive and
meritless litigation” after the company exercised “free speech
rights with respect to the creditworthiness of the United States
of America,” according to a filing today in federal court in
Santa Ana, California, responding to the government lawsuit.

“Only S&P Ratings downgraded the United States and only
S&P Ratings has been sued by the United States, even though the
S&P ratings challenged by the United States were no different
than those of at least one other rating agency and other rating
agencies have made the same assertions of ‘independence’ that
are challenged in the complaint as against S&P,” John Keker, an
attorney for the New York-based firm, said in the filing.

The Justice Department is seeking as much as $5 billion in
civil penalties for losses to federally insured financial
institutions that relied on S&P’s investment-grade ratings for
mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations.

In August 2011, S&P downgraded the U.S.’s 60-year-running
AAA credit rating to AA+ with a negative outlook.

Adora Andy Jenkins, a Justice Department spokeswoman,
responded to questions about today’s filing by citing a
transcript from the Feb. 5 press conference announcing the case,
where Associate Attorney General Tony West said there was “no
connection” to the downgrade.

“We looked at the facts, the law, and the investigation
that these great prosecutors and civil lawyers put together and
made a determination that the filing of these lawsuits was
appropriate, but they are not in any way connected,” West, the
No. 3 official at the department, said at the time.

The case is U.S. v. McGraw-Hill Cos., 13-cv-00779 U.S.
District Court, Central District of California (Santa Ana).